Gareth Higgins

Gareth Higgins was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and grew up shaped by Celtic spirituality, the experience of violent civil conflict, and an escape into the movies. He co-founded the zero28 project, a creative peace-building initiative, which for ten years formed a small but beautiful intersection between activism, spirituality, and art. Later moving to the US, he was founding director of the Wild Goose Festival, and has more recently started the Movies and Meaning festival and The Porch magazine.

His books How Movies Helped Save My Soul and Cinematic States invite a personal and life-giving response to movies as they interact with our lives. His forthcoming book, co-authored with Brian McLaren, is provisionally titled The Seventh Story. He leads retreats in Ireland and elsewhere, and is most committed to the idea that the stories we tell determine how we live.

The Seventh Story: The Frontier of Cinema and the Way We Think About Life

The stories we tell shape the lives we live, and they can be prisons or shelters. In the upcoming special issue of Image dedicated to cinema (it will be hot off the presses at the Glen Workshop!), the Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair says that one frontier of cinema is the need for balance between tentpole spectacles in which problems are “solved” by blowing things up and more thoughtful, humane stories that help us see life through the eyes of the other.

Join Gareth Higgins to explore the ways in which cinema can help us live better. We’ll watch movies both iconic and off the beaten track, and have conversations about empathy, beauty, challenge, and mystery. This seminar welcomes everyone who loves story, and wants to love life. Enthusiasm and an open mind are invited!